Goodable

North Carolina native Jase Garland’s NFL dreams came true on August 2, when the 12-year-old boy was invited to play as a quarterback for the Panthers during a training camp.

Footage filmed by X user @Ceegocrxzy shows Garland scoring a ‘touchdown’ following a handoff from Bryce Young.

“Play of the day,” the source wrote to X.

According to the Panthers, Jase was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a form of bone cancer.

Prior to entering the field for Saturday’s FanFest, the boy got to meet the team and visit the locker rooms, footage shared the Panthers show.

North Carolina native Jase Garland’s NFL dreams came true on August 2, when the 12-year-old boy was invited to play as a quarterback for the Panthers during a training camp.Footage filmed by X user @Ceegocrxzy shows Garland scoring a ‘touchdown’ following a handoff from Bryce Young.“Play of the day,” the source wrote to X.According to the Panthers, Jase was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome, a form of bone cancer.Prior to entering the field for Saturday’s FanFest, the boy got to meet the team and visit the locker rooms, footage shared the Panthers show.

A 12-Year-Old's Make-A-Wish was Just Granted, Scoring a Touchdown For the Carolina Panthers

Good News Network

When a Tokyo handyman contractor faced a saturated market, the company didn’t just pivot—they redefined what a helping hand looks like. In 2011, Client Partners launched OK! Obaachan (OK! Grandmother), a service that lets people hire elderly women not just for chores, but for comfort, company, and care.

Now, over a decade later, the idea has become a quiet success in a country facing growing loneliness and a rapidly aging population.

“I never get bored,” said 69-year-old Taeko Kaji, one of the program’s “rent-a-grandmas,” in an interview with ABC Australia. “I get to go out and have these experiences and that’s why taking this job was the right decision for me.”

The service is simple. Customers can book older women, many in their 60s and 70s, for a variety of domestic roles: cooking, childcare support, errands, or just conversation. And while some might expect this to be purely functional, many clients are looking for something more emotional.

“Some people may never have had a mother in the first place,” said Client Partners CEO Ruri Kanazawa. “Our grandmother staff members, who cook for the guests and act like a mother to them, help provide the motherly warmth they need.”

That warmth has become increasingly scarce in urban Japan. As traditional family structures fade and single-person households rise, services like OK! Obaachan tap into a growing need for intergenerational connection. It's a novel fix for a widespread problem: loneliness in one of the world's most densely populated countries.

It’s also a smart answer to another challenge: Japan’s demographic shift. The country has one of the highest proportions of elderly people in the world, and a shrinking workforce. For older women, job opportunities are often limited to cleaning or part-time labor, especially if they’ve been out of the workforce for decades raising children.

In postwar Japan, many women worked only until marriage, then exited the workforce to raise families. Later, they returned to work, if at all, through contract jobs or temporary roles. Now, some find themselves widowed or unmarried, navigating retirement with limited financial security.

But at OK! Obaachan, they can earn a respectable wage, about $55 an hour, while sharing the skills and care that come from decades of lived experience. It’s work rooted in traditional roles, but reimagined for modern life.

In many societies, elders are seen as the bearers of wisdom and stability; storytellers, teachers and trusted guides. This service restores some of that dynamic, but with a twist: instead of being inherited by kin, these relationships are chosen, paid for, and deeply appreciated.

The company also offers rentals of ‘aunts,’ ‘friends,’ and interpreters. But it’s the grandmother figure that seems to resonate most strongly.

In one small way, it’s helping redefine what aging looks like and what older women in Japan can offer, not just to clients, but to society.

And for the grandmas themselves, it’s more than a paycheck. It’s purpose.

The Heartwarming Rise of Japan's 'Rental Grandmother' Phenomenon

Smithsonian Magazine

Nearly seven decades into a legendary Hollywood career, John Williams—the composer behind the unforgettable music of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, and Harry Potter—has just added a new title to his résumé: piano concerto composer.

The 93-year-old maestro premiered his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra on July 26 at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in Lenox, Massachusetts. It marked his first-ever piano concerto, written specifically for longtime friend and acclaimed pianist Emanuel Ax.

“I didn’t know what to expect, so I was generally amazed,” Ax told WCRB ahead of the premiere. “It was wonderful to be able to spend time with this incredible man. He’s, aside from his genius, one could say, he’s also the warmest, kindest, most generous person one can imagine.”

The 20-minute concerto was performed by Ax with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andris Nelsons. It’s a piece rooted in jazz—subtly nodding to artists like Art Tatum, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson, who shaped Williams’ musical foundation long before he became the household name behind some of cinema’s most iconic soundtracks.

“I just thought it was impossible,” Williams told The New York Times. “So much in the history of music, piano, keyboard, digital, fingers—that anyone would be daunted, I think.”

But inspiration came in 2022 when Ax read that Williams might be considering a piano concerto and sent him a letter offering to be involved. Williams quickly agreed and met with Ax several times as he shaped the composition.

Their musical relationship goes back 30 years. The two first met at Tanglewood in 1994 while performing Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos with Maria Tipo. In many ways, this new concerto brings their collaboration full circle.

Though best known for film scores, Williams has written numerous concert works throughout his career. His list of concertos includes compositions for flute (1969), tuba (1985), clarinet (1991), cello (1994), trumpet (1996), horn (2003), viola (2009), and oboe (2011). But a piano concerto had always eluded him—until now.

“Turning 90 made me realize, you don’t know what kind of energy you’re going to have a year or two from now,” Williams said in an interview last year with Simon Woods of the League of American Orchestras. “I have to live in the present, contribute what little I can, and enjoy making music, which is such an important part of human life. Human experience would be empty without music.”

Despite his age, Williams shows no signs of slowing down creatively. In early 2026, the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra will be performed again by the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

It's a fitting encore for a composer who has spent his life creating the soundtracks to ours.

This Film Score Legend is Unveiling His First-Ever Piano Concerto—And It's a Masterpiece

Jen Pawol is about to make history this weekend. She will become the first woman to umpire in Major League Baseball (MLB) when she officiates games between the Miami Marlins and the Atlanta Braves. MLB confirmed that Pawol will be on duty for Saturday's doubleheader at Truist Park, working the bases and will take over home plate duties on Sunday.

Pawol, a 48-year-old from New Jersey, has been breaking barriers throughout her career. She made headlines last year as the first woman since Ria Cortesio in 2007 to umpire big league spring training games. Cortesio had a nine-year tenure in the minor leagues before being released after the 2007 season.

Before embarking on her umpiring career, Pawol was an all-state athlete in softball and soccer during her time at West Milford High School in New Jersey. Her athletic prowess led her to Hofstra University on a softball scholarship. There, she excelled as a three-time all-conference pick and even made it onto the USA Baseball women's national team back in 2001.

Reflecting on her path to becoming an umpire, Pawol said last year, "I wasn't really satisfied. Coming off a huge competitive career, just playing locally, I wasn't getting my fix. And I remember looking at the umpire and being like, I think that's it. I got to go for that."

Her journey into officiating began with NCAA softball from 2010 to 2016 before attending an MLB umpire tryout camp in 2015. She subsequently trained at the Umpire Training Academy in Vero Beach, Florida, leading to her recruitment by the Gulf Coast League in 2016.

The inclusion of women as officials isn't new across professional sports leagues, but remains significant each time it happens due to its rarity. Violet Palmer broke gender barriers when she became the NBA's first female referee in October 1997. Sarah Thomas followed suit for the NFL as a line judge during Kansas City's game against Houston in September 2015. In soccer, Stephanie Frappart made history by refereeing a men's World Cup match between Germany and Costa Rica in December 2022.

In terms of official numbers within MLB itself, there are currently 76 full-time staff umpires with additional fill-ins used when necessary due to injuries or vacations.

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts praised MLB’s step toward inclusivity: "Baseball's done a great job of being completely inclusive," he said. "I'll be watching; it's good for the game."

MLB just called up its first-ever female umpire—here's when she'll debut

Sunny Skyz

Jacob Schmitt was used to outdoor adventures. But when his side-by-side tumbled off a mountain trail in Utah’s remote Uinta Mountains, what started as a solo hunting trip turned into a fight for survival—and it was his dog who got him through it.

Schmitt, 34, suffered a broken leg, two fractured ankles, and several broken ribs when the vehicle lost control and flipped down a cliffside, rolling more than a dozen times. He was thrown from the vehicle mid-fall, left injured and alone with no working phone or radio.

But he wasn’t completely alone.

His German short-haired pointer, Buddy, had been riding safely in the back kennel. When Schmitt regained consciousness, Buddy was there—standing nearby, completely unharmed.

"He was sort of just there staring at me without a scratch," Schmitt said. "It almost makes me emotional."

Realizing he couldn’t wait for rescue, Schmitt splinted his own leg and began crawling down the mountain—an agonizing process that lasted through the night. Buddy never left his side.

For 11 hours, the two made slow progress through rugged terrain. The only light came from a faint glow on Buddy’s collar.

"The thing that loves you unconditionally is just there, essentially," Schmitt said. "And he keeps checking on you. It's like the biggest spirit jump."

By sunrise, Schmitt reached his vehicle and managed to drive it to a nearby diner, where a woman called 911 and stayed with him until emergency responders arrived. He was transported to the hospital, and first responders made sure Buddy was safe and looked after.

Schmitt spent four days in the hospital recovering. He’s now home and Buddy hasn’t left his side since.

For Schmitt, there’s no doubt who deserves the credit for getting him out alive. “He gave me the strength to keep going.”

This Heroic Dog Saved His Owner After a Harrowing Cliff Fall in the Utah Mountains

A mother in Green Bay, Wisconsin is calling a local homeless man a hero after he risked his life to save her daughter from oncoming traffic. The man, 44-year-old Weldon Tucker, stopped cars and scooped up the girl just as she ran into a busy intersection.

“He didn’t even think,” said Faith Roberts, the mother of the child. “Once he realized what my mom was saying, he took off running after her, ran into traffic, just selflessly risked his life.”

The drama unfolded as Roberts and her family were moving to a new house. Her 6-year-old daughter Honeretta, who is autistic and prone to what’s called “elopement”—a sudden impulse to run—slipped away during the move. Roberts has four children, all with special needs, including Honeretta and 7-year-old triplets.

“She elopes and she thinks it’s funny,” Roberts said. “It becomes a game of chase.”

That moment of distraction was all it took. Honeretta bolted toward the Main Street Bridge, several blocks away, and ran into the road. Her grandmother, Tynetta Johnson, who was helping with the move, sprinted after her.

“In my mind, there’s water over here, there’s a bridge over here, there’s a busy street over here, and as I’m running, she’s got a half block lead over me,” Johnson said.

She shouted desperately for help. That’s when Tucker, who happened to be nearby, sprang into action.

“He didn’t think about himself. He thought about her,” Johnson said.

Tucker ran into the street, stopped traffic, and caught up with Honeretta. He got her to safety without hesitation or concern for his own well-being.

After the ordeal, Roberts tried to repay him in some way, but he wouldn’t accept a thing.

“He was just like, ‘Happy to help. Happy I was there,’” she recalled. “And I’m like, ‘Let me pay you, let me do something,’ and he was like, ‘No, I don’t want anything. I was just happy to help.’”

Tucker is currently homeless and receiving support from local shelters. The family later learned his name and have since been telling everyone they can about what he did for them.

“He saved her life,” Roberts said. Tucker, for his part, remains humble.

“I just do my best,” he said. “And I hope, I hope in anybody’s situation like that somebody would do the same.”

A Homeless Man Just Saved This Girl with Autism From Walking into Traffic

Scientific American

With deadly heatwaves on the rise and less than a third of Indian households owning a refrigerator or cooler, companies and architects are turning to a surprisingly old material to help beat the heat—terracotta.

The clay-based ceramic, used for millennia in water pots and kitchenware, is now being reimagined into passive cooling systems for modern buildings. Affordable, durable, and electricity-free, terracotta is emerging as a homegrown response to India's growing cooling crisis.

In 2024, India experienced its hottest year on record, and extreme heat killed more than 700 people. Researchers estimate that more than three-quarters of the country’s population now faces high to very high heat risk. Yet only about 20 percent of households have access to an air conditioner or cooler.

That’s where terracotta, an ancient but proven technology, comes in. “Terracotta’s porous surface allows water to slowly evaporate, carrying heat away and cooling the space around it,” said Adithya Pradyumna, an environmental health researcher at Azim Premji University in Bengaluru.

Rural households have long used unglazed clay pots to cool drinking water, a tradition that dates back more than 3,000 years to the Harappan civilization. Today, architects and startups are scaling up the principle to help cool entire homes and buildings.

Delhi-based design firm Ant Studio is one of the pioneers. Its CoolAnt project uses terracotta as a “second skin” over concrete walls, helping to regulate internal temperatures. “We’ve harnessed its hydrophilic properties and observed average temperature drops of six to eight degrees Celsius across more than 30 sites,” said Ant Studio founder Monish Siripurapu. The system works especially well in India’s dry zones, where evaporation is more efficient.

Even modest drops in temperature can have a big impact on health and comfort indoors, Pradyumna noted. “They can significantly help the human body cool itself more efficiently, especially indoors.” With research showing a direct link between heat and mortality, small interventions like this can help save lives.

Other Indian innovators are following suit. In Bengaluru, A Threshold is creating breathable building facades using recycled terracotta. Gujarat-based company MittiCool has gone a step further, designing a refrigerator entirely made of clay that runs without electricity. “Many of our customers can’t afford to run conventional appliances, so this is a durable and affordable alternative,” said MittiCool founder Mansukhbhai Prajapati. The clay fridge can keep food fresh for three to five days.

The underlying principle across all these projects is passive cooling—an approach to building design that regulates temperature using natural materials, shading, and strategic ventilation rather than relying on powered systems. It's especially effective in hot, dry climates, and a 2021 study in the Pacific Northwest found it could reduce air-conditioning needs by as much as 70 percent.

Niyati Gupta, a senior program associate at WRI India, said terracotta “can complement existing cooling systems and reduce our dependence on the fossil-fuel-powered grid. That alone could be a game changer for both the energy and construction sectors.”

In cities like Delhi and Bengaluru, where temperatures are climbing and power grids are under strain, such solutions are increasingly essential. But their appeal also lies in accessibility. Terracotta tiles and cooling screens can be produced locally, installed inexpensively, and maintained with minimal upkeep.

As climate change drives temperatures higher and heatwaves become longer and more intense, India’s cooling challenge is only growing. Solutions like terracotta may not be new, but they offer something modern technologies still struggle to provide: relief that’s affordable, scalable and sustainable.

Ancient Terracotta Techniques Are Cooling Modern Cities—Here's How

James Ketchell has already biked around the world. He’s also flown around it in a gyrocopter. Now, the 41-year-old Englishman is attempting to complete the trifecta: a solo circumnavigation of the globe by sailboat.

Ketchell set off from a harbor in Hampshire this week, beginning what will be a 30,000-mile journey expected to take around nine months. If successful, he’ll become the first person to circumnavigate the planet solo across land, air, and sea.

“I want to inspire young people to dream big,” Ketchell has said previously. This time, he’s hoping to do exactly that not just with the journey itself, but also by livestreaming educational talks and video updates from his sailboat throughout the trip.

His route begins with a southern leg to the Canary Islands, then onward past the Cape of Good Hope to Australia, across the Pacific to Uruguay, followed by stops in Antigua, New York, and finally home to the UK by late spring 2026. He’s planning to sail around Cape Horn—considered one of the most dangerous routes for sailors—on his return leg.

It’s not Ketchell’s first try by sea. A previous sailing attempt in 2024 was cut short due to a malfunction. But he’s back at it, now with more preparation, better equipment, and renewed determination.

Premier Marinas, one of several sponsors supporting the voyage, said they were “incredibly proud” to back Ketchell. “Our team has worked closely with James to ensure he has everything he needs for a safe and successful circumnavigation,” said manager Jonathan Walcroft.

Ketchell's second global journey in 2019 saw him complete 122 gyrocopter flights across the world in just over six months. His first was in 2013, cycling across dozens of countries over 18,000 miles.

He’s part of a proud British tradition of global adventurers. At the same time Ketchell heads south, fellow endurance athlete Ross Edgley is swimming around the entirety of Iceland—a feat that’s never been completed before.

And of course, Ketchell’s journey pays tribute to an even older legacy: that of Joshua Slocum, the Nova Scotian sailor who became the first person to circumnavigate the world alone by yacht, setting sail in 1892 and returning three years later.

Ketchell hopes his latest expedition won’t take quite that long. But for the seasoned adventurer, it’s about more than timelines and records.

“At this point,” he’s said, “it’s not just about the challenge. It’s about sharing the journey.”

Why This British Explorer is Embarking on an Epic Journey to Circle the Globe by Land, Air and Sea

Science Daily

A team of physicists and experimentalists has confirmed the existence of a new type of material that conducts heat in a way scientists have never seen before. It behaves like both a crystal and a glass—and it was discovered in a meteorite that fell to Earth three centuries ago.

The material, a form of silicon dioxide known as tridymite, doesn’t behave like traditional materials when it comes to heat. Instead of conducting heat better or worse as it gets hotter or colder, like most materials do, this one stays consistent across a wide range of temperatures. That kind of thermal behavior has never been confirmed in nature—until now.

“This is the first known material with hybrid crystal-glass thermal properties,” said Michele Simoncelli, assistant professor of applied physics and applied mathematics at Columbia Engineering.

Simoncelli and his collaborators predicted this behavior using quantum mechanics and machine learning. Their paper, published July 11 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, outlines a theory they developed to explain how atomic structure—whether ordered like a crystal or disordered like a glass—affects heat flow. Then, a team of experimentalists in Paris confirmed the prediction by testing a piece of meteorite housed in France’s National Museum of Natural History.

The implications stretch far beyond this one discovery. Understanding how heat flows through materials is key to designing better electronics, improving the durability of spacecraft heat shields, and reducing energy loss in everything from solar panels to industrial furnaces.

The material in question, silica tridymite, has been known for decades, and was first described in the 1960s as being present in meteorites. It's also been identified on Mars.

What scientists didn’t realize until now was that this specific type of tridymite had such unusual thermal properties. The breakthrough came when Simoncelli and his collaborators—Nicola Marzari at the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne and Francesco Mauri at Sapienza University of Rome—used a new theoretical equation they had developed in 2019.

That equation captured the opposite heat-flow behavior seen in crystals (where conductivity drops with heat) and glasses (where it rises with heat). More importantly, it also described materials that sit somewhere in the middle—materials that are partially ordered and partially disordered.

Using that theory, they zeroed in on tridymite and predicted it would behave as a “hybrid” thermal conductor, essentially immune to temperature changes. They then reached out to a group of experimentalists—Etienne Balan, Daniele Fournier, and Massimiliano Marangolo at Sorbonne University in Paris—to test the theory.

The team got special access to a piece of meteorite that fell in Steinbach, Germany, in 1724. Tests showed that its atomic structure was indeed somewhere between an ordered crystal and a disordered glass. And when they measured how it conducted heat between 80 and 380 Kelvin, it barely changed at all.

That unusual behavior could be more than a curiosity. The researchers believe similar materials could emerge through long-term heating of refractory bricks—materials used in steel furnaces to handle extreme heat.

If that's true, tridymite-like materials could help reduce energy loss and improve heat control in steelmaking, which is one of the most carbon-intensive industries on the planet. Producing 1 kilogram of steel emits about 1.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide. With close to a billion tonnes of steel produced annually in the U.S. alone, even small improvements in efficiency could have a major impact.

The discovery could also help scientists better understand how planets, including Mars, cooled over time. Because this material can exist under specific temperature and pressure conditions, it offers a new way to study the thermal history of rocky bodies in space.

To make the original prediction, Simoncelli used machine learning to solve quantum equations more efficiently than traditional methods. Simulating atomic behavior at this level is incredibly resource-intensive, and AI helped speed things up dramatically.

According to Simoncelli, his group at Columbia is now focused on three areas: building theoretical models that can predict how materials behave, developing AI-powered simulation tools to improve the accuracy and speed of those predictions, and using both to find real-world materials that solve practical problems.

Their work could influence emerging technologies like thermoelectric wearables that convert body heat to energy, neuromorphic computing systems inspired by the brain, and spintronic devices that process information using magnetic waves instead of electrons.

The discovery of a heat-proof material in an ancient meteorite might sound like science fiction—but for Simoncelli and his team, it's just one step toward building the next generation of high-performance materials.

Meteorite Mystery: Discovery of Hybrid Crystal-Glass Material Could Revolutionize Heat Management

Space

High in the Atacama Desert, perched atop Cerro Armazones, something enormous is taking shape—literally.

Construction is still underway on the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), a $1.4 billion next-generation observatory that, once completed, will be the largest optical telescope on Earth.

Its size is staggering. The ELT’s segmented primary mirror will span 39 meters (128 feet) in diameter—nearly four times larger than any existing ground-based optical telescope. That scale doesn’t just look impressive; it will allow the telescope to collect much more light and produce images 15 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope, according to ESO.

In April 2025, the project reached a major milestone. Crews celebrated the topping-out ceremony—called Tijerales in Chile—marking the installation of the roof over the telescope’s dome. It’s a traditional moment in Chilean construction, typically honored with a barbecue. On April 16, the workers gathered beneath scaffolding draped with Chilean and ESO flags, while the event was livestreamed to ESO’s headquarters in Germany.

The telescope is located in one of the driest places on Earth. The Atacama Desert’s clear, dark skies make it one of the world’s best places for astronomical observation. And ESO isn’t new to the region—it already operates other major observatories in Chile, including the Very Large Telescope and ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array).

But the ELT is designed to take things even further. Once operational, it’s expected to help scientists search for Earth-like exoplanets, study the atmospheres of distant worlds, peer into the early universe, and investigate the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

While the telescope won’t be fully operational until later in the decade, the topping-out ceremony marked a turning point. The massive dome now has a roof. The mirrors will come next.

One thing’s for sure: when the ELT finally turns its eye to the sky, we may see the universe like never before.

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